THE STRANGE CASE OF DR JEKYLL AND MISS OSBOURNE

Walerian Borowczyk,
France,
1981, Arrow Films

“Again and again Borowczyk's films remind me that today we spend so much time paying lip service to the idea of sexual liberty, but very rarely accept -- let alone embrace -- contemporary art and filmmaking that revels in an artist’s sexual sensibilities.” -- “Laurie”, Letterboxd

“Potent and poetic, mischievous and macabre, Borowczyk’s film shows how many imaginative worlds the horror movie can open up when the right artist holds the keys” -- Nigel Andrews, Financial Times

In his NY Times obit, surrealist icon Walerian Borowcyzk was described variously by critics “as a genius, a pornographer, and a genius who also happened to be a pornographer.” Over a 40-year career, Borowczyk specialized in both experimental animated shorts, and highly sexualized portraits of Euro decadence.

It’s the engagement party for brilliant young Dr. Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancée, the beautiful Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro), attended by various pillars of Victorian society, including the astonishing Patrick Magee (A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) in one of his final roles. But when people are found raped and murdered outside and ultimately inside the house, it becomes clear that a madman’s broken in to disrupt the festivities -- but who is he? And why does Jekyll keep sneaking off to his laboratory? We know the answer, of course, but Borowczyk’s visually stunning adaptation of the much-filmed tale is crammed with imaginative and outrageously perverse touches.